A blog inspired to teach my children about other countries and cultures through their food. It also includes music, arts, and literature from those countries as well.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

FRANCE: THE FOOD

When the movie Ratatouille
came out, I was absolutely enthralled with it. And of course, I had to buy it.
My husband made me promise not to make ratatouille though. Tomatoes don’t agree
with him, and he doesn’t agree with zucchini. Not wanting to risk divorce, I
reluctantly agreed to avoid that one.And my husband also isn’t a huge fan of cooking with wine (I know, he’s
the biggest baby in the house). This was certainly throwing a wrench into my
choices though. But alas, I found some recipes that I think everyone will like.
And I’ll just save the wine for myself. It’s a win-win.

Breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Or brunch, or linner, or midnight snack. Or the two-thirties, or the nine-thirties.

Yesterday, we made crepes from a recipe based on the book Recipe for Adventure: Paris by Giada de
Laurenttis. I bought this book for my daughter, and it comes with two recipes
in the back. It was pretty easy: mixing eggs, milk, flour, sugar, and salt into
a bowl and whisking it until it’s a smooth, liquidy batter. Then I melted a pat
of butter in a skillet and placed a ¼ cup of batter in the skillet, tilting the
skillet to spread it around. This is one time I’m glad I have a skillet with a
handle on both sides. After about a minute or so, I flipped it once to brown it
on the other side. I was amazed at how light and airy it was. You can fill it
with a variety of toppings, but we made Banana-Nutella crepes that were out of
this world. We had them for dinner last night, and again for breakfast this
morning (still just as good!).

Sometimes the things that take the longest to make taste the best. Like this right here.

To start off today’s recipes, I had to look to Julia Child for guidance.
I checked out her book Mastering the Art
of French Cooking, vol. 1 from the library. I started off with her recipe
for French bread, although I was tempted to try the croissants as well.
(Croissants are one of my most favorites things in the world.) This French
bread takes a long time to make, so it’s not something to make at the last
minute.I first mixed the yeast,
flour, and salt into a bowl, slowly poured warm water into it, and mixed it.
Then I added one more cup of flour little by little to make the dough smooth
and elastic. I let it sit for three hours while I went shopping. After that
time, it had almost doubled in size, and I punched it down, letting it rest
another hour and a half. When it was time, I divided the dough into three
pieces, folding each piece in two, covering it with a towel and letting it sit
for another five minutes. Now it was time to shape them and lay them on
parchment paper dusted with flour. And again, I had to let them rest for
another hour and a half. Then comes the slightly difficult part because I don’t
have the optimal baker’s oven or equipment. I placed a baking sheet with water
in it on the bottom rack while the oven preheated to 450ºF. Then I sprayed some
water onto the tops of the loaves and slashed it before transferring it to the
oven to bake for 25 minutes. It took all day, but it was so worth it. I loved
the crunchy, flakey crust and the soft inside. It was the perfect bread to dip
in the soup.

So comforting. I want to make this when it's not 90º outside.

And now we come to the main course: Julia Child’s Potage au Cresson. The
recipe builds off of her recipe for potato and leek soup.It starts off with simmering potatoes,
leeks (and any other vegetables you would prefer; I didn’t add anything else),
chives, water, and salt for about 40-50 minutes. Then add in the watercress and
mash up the vegetables. The recipes calls to pass the soup through a food mill,
but I just used my hand mixer to blend everything together and puree as much as
I could. Then I added a little more salt and a little pepper to it. Once I took
it off the heat, I stirred in the whipping cream just before serving and
garnished it with a little more chives and watercress. I did have to add a
little salt and some garlic powder to make it perfect.I had never used watercress
before.It has the consistency and
flavor of a strong-tasting spinach. I really liked it and thought it
complemented the potatoes and the leeks. Next time, I might try adding in a
little sausage or mini meatballs.

There are no words. It blew me away. It was a huge hit with the kids. Especially when I called it bacon pizza.

Next, I made a dish that was recommended by a friend who had lived in
France for a while: tarte flambé. It’s native from the Alsace area. I had to
make my own crème fraîche by mixing half sour cream and half whipping cream,
and I also had to substitute low fat cream cheese for the fromage blanc. I
mixed the crème fraîche, cream cheese, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in a bowl and
set it aside. I also mixed together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a
bowl, making a well in the center. Then I mixed the oil, egg yolks, and water
together and poured it into the well, stirring everything to make the dough.
After kneading it for a minute, I divided it into three parts to make into a
12” circle. For each circle, I spread some of the cheese mixture, leaving the
edges free, sprinkling some chopped bacon and some of the chopped leeks that I
had leftover from the soup. I don’t have a pizza stone, but I did learn this
hack of making my own. I nested two baking sheets together, put them into the
oven upside down, and preheated the oven to 500º. I put one tarte onto a piece
of parchment paper and transferred it to the overturned baking sheets and let
it bake for about eight minutes until it was crispy on the edges. Originally,
tarte flambé was a way that bakers would test to see whether the oven was hot
enough. I must really enjoy what I do, because sticking my head in a 500º oven
on an already humid day sounds a little crazy.

"'S'wonderful... 'S'marvelous... That you should care for me." -- from An American in Paris

I loved everything about this meal. I actually had never
eaten French food before (well, besides crepes and baguettes). It was
amazing.Maybe one day, I’ll just
go ahead and make the beef bourguignon without telling anyone and just serve it
for dinner unannounced.Sometimes,
you just have to go for it. In the movie Ratatouille,
Remy takes the chance to follow his dream to be a chef, even though it seemed
pretty improbable. I lost my job in April working at a large insurance company
for almost four years, but tomorrow I will be launching my own business, Da
Capo Proofreading LLC. It’s an online proofreading and editing company. At
times, it seemed fairly improbable as well. But I’m taking a chance on a dream
to work from home doing something I enjoy. Even this blog project seemed an
improbable feat. But in the meantime, I’ll have some really tasty food to
remind me of how far I’ve come and how far I can go. (And this is the last “F”
country!)

About Me

I'm really nerdy. I have several writing projects going on, and I also have a really long list of books I'm working my way through; I'm still adding books to it, so in essence, I'll never get through it. I'm an amateur food and culture blogger, an amateur baker and cook, an amateur musicologist, an amateur grammarian, an amateur know-it-all, and a professional dreamer. Follow me on Twitter: @KayoSmada.